The Roman Guy Tours — Local services in Rome

We had the great pleasure of completing the bike tour with Alex from Roma Star Bike/The Tour Guy recently.

It was easy to book online and easy to find the store location, just down the street from the colosseum.

All of the staff speak English and Italian.

Alex was our tour guide and he knows the streets of Rome very well.

He actually cares about his guests, not just in the sense of safety but also he is very cognizant of how the tour and the city is being experienced by us.

At each point of interest we were given time to take pictures and video after Alex explained a history of the location, in a very cerebral way. He was not just regurgitating history but explaining it in a way that really makes you think, a sort of deep reflection of the history and helping us to put ourselves into the history as if we were there back in time.

When crossing busy roads and heavy pedestrian areas, Alex would adapt and manage our small group to make sure we were safe and not falling behind or lost.

It felt like it was my good friend giving me the tour.

As for the bikes, it was like a big bike store with many different models of e-bikes and they will choose the correct bike for your height and body type. Seats were adjusted to make sure that each person could ride safely and comfortably.

Helmets were offered at no extra cost and they were clean and fit well.

The store has washroom facilities.

They have a place for your bag or backpack to be stored while on the tour so it saves weight, is less hot and is safer on the bike and also saves bike battery life. The riders in our group used up on average about 15 to 25% of each bikes battery.

It was a 3-hour bike ride but it felt like 1 hour…with the e-bikes I could have gone all day and I wish it were a longer tour. This was my first time using any e bike and it was very easy to catch on and learn to use the ebike , although I am a very avid mountain biker. I will tell you that I'm not going back to a manual bike and will be looking for an e-bike in the near future.

When I go back to Rome I will be booking another bike tour with Alex again that’s for sure. It was so worth the time and money.

Thank you, Alex!

Also shout out to fellow rider, Greg, it...

Misleading and Poorly Managed — Avoid This Tour Tour: Privileged Entrance Vatican Tour with Sistine Chapel & St. Peter's Basilica Date: June 4, 2025

I’m deeply disappointed with my experience on this tour, and I would not recommend it to anyone expecting a professional or honest service.

The tour was advertised — both in name and description — as including privileged access to St. Peter’s Basilica, entering directly from the Sistine Chapel and ending inside the Basilica. Nowhere during the booking process was there a clear disclaimer that this access would not happen on the day of our visit (Wednesday, June 4, 2025). Only after payment, in the fine print of the voucher, did a vague note mention that access “may” not be possible. That’s unacceptable.

To make matters worse, other tour groups were entering the Basilica through the privileged access point we were denied — I have photos as proof. When asked, our guide admitted our group simply didn’t have a reservation slot. That’s not a Vatican restriction — that’s a failure by the company to deliver what they sold.

The tour itself was chaotic: rushed pacing, poor explanations, a guide who relied more on a photo booklet than real commentary, and a weak overall experience. The tour was supposed to last over 3 hours — ours ended in under 2. We received no guided experience inside the Sistine Chapel, just 15 minutes alone without context. Radio devices frequently lost signal because the group was not kept together.

I followed up with customer service and was offered a 10% refund and a $40 credit. I declined the credit — I have no intention of ever using their services again. I was also told by a staff member that management is aware their website description is misleading and under review, which makes this even worse — they’re knowingly selling a broken experience.

This was a waste of time and money. Save yourself the disappointment and...

I’m giving this tour three stars because of the speed tour and volume of information you receive. We picked this tour because it checked off a lot of the things we wanted to see in Rome and the tour that was similar to this one, through our Cruise line, was completely booked. The volume of information and facts we received on this tour was overwhelming and, because we had so much to cover and so many things to see, we zipped through absolutely everything. This tour felt like a whirlwind and will leave you completely exhausted, everyone in my family got well over 14,000 steps. Monica is a bevy of information; she’s very knowledgeable, however we weren’t quite prepared to constantly have to choose between paying attention to what Monica was telling you or taking photos of what Monica was talking about. Because there was so many sites, so much information, and so much ground to cover this tour did a pour job of balancing education and enjoyment. There wasn’t enough time to absorb what you were being told regarding such as the Roman Forum and still get family photos. There was an unbelievable amount of people at each and every historical site which also compounded the issue of getting a decent photo. The tour information also doesn’t do a great job at explaining that this tour does not end at the same place that it begins. We made the mistake of telling our transportation to drop us off and pick us up at Vatican City. The tour begins at Vatican City and it ends at the Colosseum and it was an ordeal figuring how how to get back to Vatican City from the colosseum. We did desire to see all of the things that are on this “Rome in a Day” tour, but it was a very frustrating feeling being rushed through everything and getting a profuse amount of on top of that. Given everything that is on this tour; it truly should be broken up into two days instead...